Root cause analysis and diagnosis in SOA and cloud environments

Modern information technology (IT) is comprised of a complex mix of infrastructure components provisioning enterprise applications performing tasks in various enterprise business processes. Over the years these components were integrated into overall business processes using various integration technologies and architectures. In recent years, service-oriented architecture (SOA) approaches have emerged which separate the service implementations from its interfaces. Stable service interfaces allow for the integration of services at a higher level and orchestration of services into ever more complex business solutions. However, the implementation of a service can change at any time, and this is considered a good thing because of its flexibility. Sometimes a services implementation is comprised of a single software component, but in an enterprise setting, a service might be composed of multiple IT applications, systems, networks and databases interconnected in elaborate ways. Since business needs change, components of a service implementation change and evolve to meet changing business needs.